


In Spite Of Everything

by lu2stylelala



Series: Everything [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Feelings, Getting Together, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-04-26
Packaged: 2018-01-20 22:08:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1527413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lu2stylelala/pseuds/lu2stylelala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>While the previous two installments of "Everything" are consecutive, this chapter "spans" a significant amount of time, starting in Tony's childhood. This was actually where the "Everything" series began.</p>
    </blockquote>





	In Spite Of Everything

**Author's Note:**

> While the previous two installments of "Everything" are consecutive, this chapter "spans" a significant amount of time, starting in Tony's childhood. This was actually where the "Everything" series began.

Tony –Anthony E. Stark- is actually thirteen when he decides he doesn’t want to have children. By now he’s built his own robots, his own engines, created a program for an AI with the ability to manage an entire mansion, and is on his way through college. He never sees his father –unless it’s for a photo opportunity that ends in a family war in which the Stark males throw punches and Maria stares out a window blankly- and his mother stopped seeing him when he learned to talk.  
When taking such things into account –a spaced-out parent verses an abusively alcoholic one- it is no wonder young Tony has no wish to have a family of his own. The only thing he knows of family is how much it hurts, and how much care one must take to ensure the outside world never knows.  
On the outside, he’s the perfect Stark, and he has made sure of it. Butlers and Nannies can’t be trusted with such a responsibility, and anything less brings his father’s fists flying. So Tony is perfect, he’s bright and charming and smiles with child-like innocence as he runs schematics for weapons that could –conceivably- erase the known world.  
He graduates MIT at fifteen, gathers another half-dozen degrees in the following handful of years (out of sheer boredom) and steps up to the plate, running his father’s company after Howard Stark and his striking wife pass in a ‘tragic accident’. He trusts Obie –Obadiah Stane- because the man was his father’s best friend and always seemed supportive, an affectionate Uncle-type role-model for boy sadly lacking in both family and friends.  
Together they run the company, Tony rules the world. Stark Industries is the leading name in weapons design and production, juggling impressive military contracts as well as constantly creating new and impressive weaponry and machinery. The company is running technological circles around even the closest of its competitors –remote, at best- and Tony should be feeling on top of the world.  
He has, at best, three human friends: Obie, James Rhodes, and Pepper. Rhodes is busy with the military, and Pepper is at best a sister and at worst a nagging P.A.-slash-babysitter. Obie is a manager and his father’s friend, a co-worker…  
Jarvis, U and DUM-E –his AI and robots- are perhaps the closest thing he has to ‘real’ friends. Pepper and Obie are on payroll, at the end of the day, and maybe Rhodey’s just here for the sake of the toys Tony turns over to the military. The robots are loyal, at least. But then, Tony _built_ them, he knows the price of loyalty. At the end of the day, he trusts his robots, which probably explains why he treats them as he does.  
Humans, he does his best with humans kept at arm’s length, and even then that doesn’t always work.  
He goes to Afghanistan for a weapons demonstration, the convoy is attacked. Tony –fucking- Stark wakes up in a cave with a magnet in his chest and wires attached to a car battery, threatened with death unless he builds some desert-bred evil-mastermind one of his glorious new tools of destruction: a Jericho missile.  
Boy, these guys sure know how to make friends. _Hello to the greatest mass murderer of our time. Make us a Jericho or die immediately. If you do agree to make us the weapon, then we’ll pretend you will walk out of this cave, but you know full-well we’ll simply kill you later._  
Joy.

*

Once again, he beats the odds, and maybe that’s what being a Stark is all about? He makes it out of that death-trap, free in the desert, gets rescued by Rhodey –maybe he is a friend, after all?- and taken back home. Stop with the weapons, let Tony think a minute. Maybe things could be handled better, maybe he should be more responsible. Maybe things need to change.  
Bad guys have his weapons, ok so things _definitely_ need to change. Starks build, and Tony’s the brightest one yet. So? He builds a suit, he pulls stunts that are at best ‘suicidal’ (and Pepper could list them as being much more besides) and hunts down said weapons, destroying them. Finally he feels like a worthwhile human being, maybe?  
Alright, not really… But it’s a step in the right direction, so he’ll take it for what it is. He still doesn’t want a family, doesn’t want children, doesn’t want to subject someone innocent to how truly fucked up his life is.  
More of the same. Another villain, another suit, another weapon destroyed and crisis averted. He tries things out with Pepper, he lets them die out. That’s not happening, there are so many ways that is _not_ happening. She’ll be better off with Happy anyway, and they all know that.  
Nope, no family for Tony Stark.

*

Ok, so maybe this “Avengers” idea isn’t too bad at all. Maybe having ‘people’ around can be a good thing, though Tony is not about to admit it to Pepper. She can give him all the ‘I told you so’ looks she wants, he’s not going to give in and admit it. He’s not.  
The freaks all living in the same mansion –Avenger’s Tower, now- is actually a good thing. So maybe there are more people to yell at him when he goes days without sleep, and maybe Clint drinks half of Tony’s coffee (because he apparently has a death wish) and only makes a fresh pot when Natasha is there to stab him with a butter knife if he refuses, and maybe Steve wrecks a punching bag a night and Bruce takes up more space in Tony’s lab than he’s initially ok with…  
Eventually he’s ok with all of it, good with it actually… Eventually it’s, nice… It’s… sort of like home, like having a family.

*

Tony revels in the smooth glide of the suit, the power present in each movement he makes. The enemies have been defeated and carted off to jail –still spouting their monologues, because Steve wouldn’t let Tony and Clint gag them- and now they’re on clean-up. The fact that it’s in the wreckage a children’s hospital means that they can’t get enough help, and none of them are inclined to leave before things are finished.  
Even Tony, who is certainly not the best at this stuff, refuses to go. Why bother? He’d just feel terrible about it –he needs no help, thank you- and be home alone –something he’s afraid he isn’t even used to anymore- while everyone finished work here. No thanks. He’d rather stomp around in the half-wrecked building and use the suit to shove aside partially wrecked walls.  
The last thing he expects to happen while he is working is to push rubble aide and find the intact doorway of a still-standing closet. The sudden flow of light revealing a cowering boy staring up at him, wearing an Iron Man shirt. A dark-haired boy with bright blue eyes that launches himself right at Tony. And suddenly there’s a sobbing kid in his arms, muttering about ‘always knowing Iron Man was a hero’ and ‘thank you so much for saving my life I didn’t want to die’.  
“Whoa, whoa there kid.” Tony murmurs when the shock wears off, scooping the boy up and gently –if not awkwardly- patting his back. “You’re fine.”  
“Steven.” The boy mutters, face pressed against the red of Tony’s chest-plate.  
“I’m sorry?” Though surprised and a bit confused, he works at keeping his tone soothing.  
He gets a stubborn glance for his trouble, and more than a few sniffles. “I’m Steven.”  
“Oh, right… Steven.” Tony murmurs, glancing around. “Ah, that’s a swell name. I have a friend named Steven, actually… Mostly we just call him Steve.”  
“Steve?” The crying has abated, somewhat.  
“Yeah.. Well, or Cap, sometimes other stuff… When he’s annoying…” Tony half-grinned at the thought, turning and slowly climbing back through the debris. At this point he’ll gladly keep talking, if it keeps the kid from sobbing all over him. He tells himself it’s to avoid salt-damage to the suit, but, really.. Crying kid? No thanks, curious is much better. Plus, the kid’s an Iron Man fan, he’s got good taste! “Like, nicknames I guess.”  
Blue eyes blinked up at him. “Oh… Like people call you Tony?”  
“Yeah, like that.”  
Thoughtful silence, and momentarily Tony fears more tears. “C- can I call you Tony?”  
“Sure kid. Works better than ‘Iron Man’, I guess.” He shrugs. Maybe Tony Stark can be a hero too?  
“So.. If I call you Tony… Can.. can you call me Steve too? Like your friend?” Steven gnawed at his lower lip. “Can we be friends?”  
Captain America –the ‘other’ Steve- comes into view, shield on his back and a grin on his face that abruptly reminds Tony he still had his com on, and the whole damn group can probably hear him talking to this kid. _Great._  
“Well, Cap’s not really gonna work as a nickname for you… So… Sure we can, kid- err, Steve.” Tony half-smiled, ignoring Captain America’s grin. “Friends it is.”  
“Cool.”  
Glad to have one battle over, Tony jumps into the next one the best way he can think of. “So, since we’re friends, you have to do something for me.”  
Steven tilts his head, thinking this over, and then nodded. “Alright.”  
“You have to go talk to the nice doctors and make sure you’re not hurt.”  
At that, Steven rolls his eyes, drooping slightly, but he nods. “O-kay.”  
“Will it make it better if I promise to see you after?”  
A wide grin. “Do I get to meet your friends too?”  
“Sure, there’s one now.” Tony shrugged it off, taking advantage of Cap’s increasing proximity. “Hey Cap! Got another one for the Doc.”  
Good ‘Ol Boy Steve flashed a wide smile, and gave the boy a casual salute. “So I see. Hey, I’m Captain America.”  
Steven grins. “Course you are, but Tony says he calls you Cap, so I’m gonna too… Kay?”  
The easy grin faltered into something like bewilderment, and to Steve’s left Natasha appeared laughing outright. “Ok?”  
“Five minutes in the hands on Tony Stark and you’re already acting like him.” Natasha clicked. “Come here then, little Iron Man, the Doctors need to look at you.”  
“She’s scary.” Steven whispers as Tony put him down.  
“She’s not so bad.” Tony mutters back, winking. “But don’t tell her I said.”  
Steven nods and accepts Black Widow’s offered hand, waving as she leads him toward the paramedics waiting in the street. Watching the boy shuffle off, Tony lingers for a moment, and then turns back to the remains of the building with a sigh. “Is that everything?”  
When silence greets his query, he glancs at Steve, arching a questioning brow. “Hey… Cap?”  
“Yeah, that’s everything…” Steve mutters abruptly, shaken out of his thoughts. “We can probably wrap things up and head out…”  
“I, ah…” Tony runs a hand through his hair, uncaring for how it stands in all directions. “I have to say goodbye to Steven, before we go, I ah sorta promised.”  
“Yeah…” Steve murmurs. “I heard.”  
“Right.” And he was not going to blush, because he was Tony-Goddamn-Stark, but fuck that was moderately embarrassing. “Still, I’ll probably beat you home, so go on ahead.”  
He turns away and has taken a half-step after Natasha before Steve’s hand catches his shoulder. “Tony?”  
“Uh, yeah?”  
Steve is blushing at this point, but Steve was from the 40’s and blushes at _everything_ so really what does that prove? Nothing. “Can… Can I tag along, and say goodbye to him too?”  
Tony blinks in surprise, and then shrugs. “Yeah, I guess.”  
Steve nods and falls into step beside him, the color in his cheeks increasing. “You’re… you’re pretty good with kids, you know.”  
Tony glances at him sharply, not quite a glare, and looks away again without comment.  
“You are.” Steve insists, and the color is even brighter, but he meets Tony’s eyes without flinching. “Stop staring at me like that, it’s true… I… I think you’d be a great dad, you know.”  
And Tony has no idea what to say to that.  
“He’s… Sorta like you, ya know.” Steve continues, catching his stride in the silence. “I mean, I know Natasha said it, but really, it’s true. How can a child act like you five minutes into your acquaintance?”  
“He’s a pretty smart kid, you know.” Tony defends ‘Steven’ without hesitation, something akin to smugness in his tone. “Being an Iron Man fan and all that… Good taste.”  
“Right.” Steve laughs. “Well, if this is what you’re like with one fan, I’ll make sure that you don’t find anymore.”  
“What the hell does that mean?”  
“If you get your own army of children, I don’t want to see what Natasha will do to the rest of us because we let you run unchecked…” Steve shudders teasingly.  
“Hey! I should do a visit and bring some tech to these kids at the new hospital, that’d be great!” Tony gives his best ‘scheming scientist’ grin, and dodges a gauntleted fist with a disapproving click. “Watch out there Captain, you’re going to dent a National Treasure.”  
Steve huffs, rolling his eyes. “What was I thinking? A miniature you? I have no idea how we would survive.”  
“You wouldn’t… You’d be dead meat in the face of my offspring’s unending cuteness and formidably unfathomable intelligence.”  
Glancing at a grinning and waving Steven sitting on the tailgate of the ambulance, Steve smiles as he notes Tony’s return greeting. “Somehow… I don’t think it would be too bad.”  
“You offering to raise a kid with me, Cap?” Tony grinned teasingly, burying his apprehension at the topic with a convincing quirk of his eyebrows.  
“I’m probably the only one with a chance of making an honest man out of you.” Steve replies coolly, smiling when Tony stops in dead-shock. “Let’s face it, I’m wholesome enough for the both of us.”  
After a moment Tony recovers, scrambling after the blond with hissing demand in his tone. “Did you just dare me to be a bad influence on you in a way that bordered on sexual invitation?”  
“Do you really think I’m going to answer that in front of a child and on an open com-line?” Steve counters, flashing his guileless baby blues.  
“Please don’t.” Clint chimes in as Thor begins muttering about strange mating rituals and Natasha responds with muffled laughter.  
“I’m pretty sure you did.” Tony insisted.  
“Really, Tony? I’m the good one, remember?” Steve shrugs. “But the fact remains… I think you’d be a great dad. I know you don’t believe me, but that’s the truth.”  
Tony reaches forward and catches his arm, expression serious and tone soft. “In spite of everything?”  
Steve smiles. “Yes Tony, in spite of everything.” 

**Author's Note:**

> The child (Steven) is an original male character that is not meant to resemble any presence in canon, comic/movie or otherwise. But if you're wondering if I combined select traits from Tony and Steve into this imaginary child, you're correct.


End file.
